Alleged spies in Gaza are tortured to death, dragged through streets

One of the victims. Screenshot of a video of the killings filmed by our Observer.

Videos of a ghastly scene that took place in Gaza are making the rounds on social networks. The video shows six Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel being tortured to death in front of the son of one of the accused. Their corpses were then dragged down the street. A witness describes the killings .

Photos taken by Mohamed Salem from Reuters (see below) show the bodies of men dragged down the streets by motorcycles. This took place on Tuesday around 4:30 pm, in the Makoussi neighborhood of western Gaza.

The spokesperson for the political division of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, condemned these acts. He stated that “traitors must certainly be punished, but it should occur according to proper legal procedure and following a trial”.

It is the second time in one week that Palestinians accused of collaborating with the Israeli authorities have been killed. On November 15, a man was gunned down on one of the main avenues of Gaza City. Nobody claimed responsibility for the murder, but a message was left at the scene of the crime: “All traitors will suffer the same fate”.

“They insulted them and spat on their corpses”

A Jeep stopped in the middle of the Makoussi neighborhood and hooded men unloaded the six handcuffed suspects. Some of them were already dead, but others were still alive, though severely injured. The hooded men placed a large sheet of paper on the ground before climbing back aboard their vehicle. On this sheet were the names of the six victims and the motives for killing them. The message was signed, supposedly by the Al-Qassam Brigade [the armed wing of Hamas], claiming to be responsible for the assassinations. But that does not mean anything, in my opinion: it could be any armed group pretending to be Al-Qassam, because they know Al-Qassam is untouchable.

The crowd that rapidly grew around the six men killed those who were still alive by hitting them with rocks and trampling them. The crowd insulted them and spit on their bodies.

The son of one of the victims was present [Editor’s note: he can be heard crying in the recording, and several seconds later, a voice asks, “Is this your father?”]. When people started calling for the men to be dragged in the street [Editor’s note: voices can be heard yelling “drag them”], the son of the victim unsuccessfully tried to stop them. The young man was then made to leave.

People brought ropes. The bodies were attached to the back of motorcycles. The corpses were then dragged down the street. I did not see them again, but I heard later that they ended up being brought to the morgue.

The crowd was able to do this because the police have been absent from the streets since the Israeli offensive. Armed groups can carry out summary executions with complete impunity. And people have been unleashing all of their pent-up anger against those they perceive as responsible for the deaths of Palestinians [Editor’s note: in the video, a man looking at a corpse can be heard saying twice that “he should be an example for all the others”].

I wholly disapprove of such actions. Certainly, those who collaborate with Israel should be judged and punished because they are in part responsible for the deaths of Palestinians. But treating dead bodies in this way is reprehensible, including from a religious point of view.

Comments

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And everybody criticises Israel! They do not hide their children behind agitators and then shout that their children are being killed. It is a tragic situation but who started all this? This Israelis who were defending their lives or Arafat who used the then harmless Palestinians to make a name for himself politically? So much tragedy. The truth will out but how much tragedy will occur before.

Every time there is an Israeli attack against a Palestinian official we hear report of the innocent casualties, caught in crossfire. Where is the smoking gun, the piece of cold hard evidence which proves these people were assisting the Israelis? Here in the UK everyone is presumed innocent until proven Guilty. This makes the perpetrators this torture and murder just as Guilty as their Neighbours in Israel. The brutality of their actions matches that of Europe in the middle ages. This will not solve their problems, all it serves to do is make the world deaf to their calls for help and aid.

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You can also see it from this perspective. Those who collaborate with Israel (not to say that these people have) help save Palestinian lives. They help save Palestinian lives by helping Israel better pinpoint its targets.